The Supreme Court of Cassation of the Republic of Bulgaria repealed again the claims by “Justerini and Brooks Limited” - London

The Supreme Court of cassation repealed again as groundless the claims by “Justerini and Brooks Limited” - London through the “Diajeo” Group, which assert a violation of their “J&B” trademark right.

By Decision N 1071/2004 on commercial case N 158/2004 and by Decision N 249/2006 on commercial case N 813/2005 the highest court in our country repealed as groundless the claims asserting that Bulgarian companies violate their trademark right, as the issue was the import of original goods, produced and marked by the trademark owner.
Generally, “Justerini and Brooks Limited” – London maintained that only and exclusively they have the right to sell products marked with the ‘J&B” brand on the territory of Bulgaria, and no other importer can realise such activity, although it has purchase original goods, produced by them. The se actions of theirs contradicted the national law – The Law on Trademarks and Geographic Indications. Although familiar with the practices of the Committee on protection of the competition, the position of the Patent Office in Bulgaria and the decisions of the Supreme Court of Cassation, “Justerini and Brooks Limited” took actions for the detainment of original goods, imported by a third party, claiming a breach of the law. The trademark owners were well aware that a lawsuit in Bulgaria takes more than 4 years until the case has passed its way from the first to the final instance, and that is why they boldly file suits against every importer, and until the case lasts, the goods are levied a distress and they cannot be a part of the commercial turnover.
As a result of such actions many companies went bankrupt, owing to the fact that they could not sustain the financial losses, accumulated over a long period of time, for which the goods had been distrained, as well as the restrictions that were imposed until the case was decided. It is yet another issue that such a company discontinues the import of their trademark only because the court decision from the final instance is legally binding for the parties to the suit.
Their aim is to impose a monopoly on the market, something that is prohibited by a law in Bulgaria, but with the aforementioned actions they achieved their goals in fact, certainly until the final instance has passed a judgement.
Trademark owners are well aware of the European Union practices, namely that once the goods have been put on the market by them or with their permission, they may not object the following sales. Actually, Bulgarian legislation was borrowed very precisely from the European one and has the same underlying principles, and that is why it is pointless to make attempts for imposing a monopoly on the market, as well as to enforce restrictions which do not exist in the European Community, although Bulgaria is not a member country yet.
Basically “Justerini and Brooks Limited” speculate precisely with the fact that Bulgaria is not a member of the EU yet, and for that reason they believe they have some extra rights and may implement actions, which are inconceivable for any European country and specifically to signal the government authorities – police, prosecutor’s office – with false statements and apart from that bring civil suits with no legal grounds only with the purpose to ruin the local companies, realising import of original goods produced by them.

Summarising, “Justerini and Brooks Limited” fight the so-called “parallel import”, which is allowed in the EU and does not infringe their trademark right, with their goal being the imposing of a monopoly on the market, which intention of theirs has ended with no result for yet another Bulgarian company, which has won the suit in the Supreme Court of Cassation in Bulgaria, but still the problem remains for all those companies, who haven’t covered the long distance of the lawsuits yet, and at the same time “Justerini and Brooks Limited” continue to accumulate huge profits as the sole importer in Bulgaria, owing to the prevailing and monopoly conditions, imposed by them.